Month 7 in Evan Falchuk’s diary of his Independent campaign for Governor of Massachusetts

A lot of people I meet are worried about the future. They’re worried that our politics and government are broken, and that our elected leaders can’t come up with practical answers for the serious problems that just keep getting worse. They worry that we are reaching a point of no return, where the very foundation of what makes America so much more than just a place on a map will be lost.

old foe: Obamacare.

Rather than cook up new strategies for the new year, though, New York University professor Sherry Glied expects the GOP will serve more of the same talking points.

How are you going to end corruption in Washington?

Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935) resulted in the defeat of a major provision of President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and further efforts would not succeed until Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938. A national minimum wage was established at $0.25 per hour.

wrote an article where he argued that:

As previously reported on IVN, a coalition of third party and nonpartisan groups, including the Independent Voter Project, are combining resources in an effort to produce Open Debates 2016.

Nineteen years have passed since Angus King was elected Governor of Maine as an independent, sixteen since wrestler Jesse Ventura “shocked the world” by beating two well-funded rivals in Minnesota, and four since Lincoln Chafee vied for Rhode Island’s highest office. While history is scattered with such examples of successful independent candidacies, it is no secret that the Republicans and Democrats have a strangle hold over the political process; those outside the duopoly rarely have their voices heard.

The number of Americans who identify with either Republicans or Democrats has either stagnated or declined significantly. Consequently, 42 percent of Americans now self-identify as independent; the highest percentage in Gallup history.

Democrats have managed to maintain a 2010-level of party registration, but the Gallup poll found:

If equal affection cannot be,

Let the more loving one be me .

--W.H. Auden

One of the more comforting myths of the modern political age is that the government in our country has become dysfunctional because it no longer represents the people. The reality, I fear, is much worse news: Government has become dysfunctional because it does represent the people—and the people are dysfunctional.

restrictions on ballot access for third parties in Ohio. The decision is a victory for third parties in the state as well as advocates for greater ballot access for candidates not affiliated with the two mainstream political parties.